It felt like it would be a good night for the Minnesota Twins after Joe Ryan struck out the side in the top half of the first and their offense added a pair of runs off Hunter Brown in the bottom half of the inning.
However, the trio of Brown, Christian Walker and Brendan Rodgers had other plans, as the Twins lost 5-2 to the Houston Astros at Target Field on Thursday. Minnesota fell to 2-5, while the Astros improved to 3-4.
It wasn’t Twins starter Joe Ryan’s most consistent outing, but wasn’t his worst vs. Astros
He was also pretty unlucky.
Ryan allowed back-to-back bombs off the bats of Christian Walker and Jeremy Peña, respectively, in the second, as wel as a two-RBI single from Rodgers on a ground ball past a diving Carlos Correa on the infield grass in the fourth. Ryan gave up four earned runs, five hits and zero walks while collecting six strikeouts.
While the Christian Walker home run resulted from a hanging sweeper down the middle from Ryan, Peña hit his home run on a fastball well above the strike zone. And if Correa hadn’t been positioned on the infield grass when Rodgers hit his two-RBI single, at least one run would likely have been prevented.
Five games prior, Ryan pitched five innings of one-run ball against the St. Louis Cardinals. It appears Minnesota wants to ensure the injury bug doesn’t come back to bite Ryan, as he tabbed just over 80 pitches in each of his two starts this season.
Brown settled in nicely, shutting out Minnesota from innings two through six and striking out eight.
Walker went 2-for-3, got hit by a pitch once and scored twice. Rodgers collected three hits, including a double and three RBI.
Randomly, the Twins struck out Jose Altuve five times, the most ever in the perennial Hall of Famer's career. Maybe he needs to go back to second base.
Tough offensive performance for Minnesota
The Twins only had five hits on their 5-2 loss to Houston, and Byron Buxton accounted for two of them.
The one positive to take from the offense’s performance on Thursday is Buxton’s duo of hits, especially after his slow start to the season. So it seems Buxton is seeing the ball well, but what about the rest of the squad?
Not very well.
The Twins are 29th in the league in OPS at .534. While that number is awful, the star-studded Atlanta Braves are 30th at .485. It’s early in the season, so there's no need for Twins Territory to hit the panic button quite yet.
What’s up with Louis Varland?
It doesn’t feel like long ago when Varland was in the conversation about becoming a mainstay in the starting rotation. Now, his job in the bullpen could be in jeopardy.
In the sixth inning against Houston, Varland allowed one run on two hits, including a 106.1 MPH double off the left field wall off the bat of Rodgers. He also allowed a solo shot from White Sox rookie Brooks Baldwin on Tuesday.
If there is one reason to think that Varland will put it together, it’s the fact that he pitched 9 ⅓ scoreless innings during spring training. But perhaps facing a major league offense is too difficult for him at the moment. He allowed 17 runs in 13 innings out of the bullpen last September, and opposing batters are hitting .294 across four innings this season. If Varland doesn’t step up his game soon, he could be headed back to St. Paul.
What’s next
The Twins enjoy an off-day on Friday before Game 2 of their series with the Astros on Saturday. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m.